Many people are required to take several different medications, which must be taken at prescribed times. Keeping track of multiple medications, and remembering whether or not those medications have been taken, is a challenging task even for people with strong memories. For people who have poor memories, it nearly impossible to maintain a medication regimen accurately without assistance. Oncology patients, in particular, are often required to take a series of different medications, in different quantities, at different times. Thus, an oncology patient, even one with an excellent memory, good cognitive skills, and a high degree of alertness, can depart inadvertently from a prescribed regimen. Medical non-compliance, that is, failure to take a proper dose of medication at the prescribed time and in the prescribed amount, is a serious problem.
A calendar pill box is commonly used to assist an individual in remembering to take medications on a daily basis. Such a box typically has a separate, labeled, compartment for each day of the week. The user can readily determine whether or not the prescribed daily medication was taken by observing whether or not the compartment corresponding to the current day is empty. A problem with a conventional daily calendar pill box is that it does not help a person who needs to take medications multiple times in a single day. A more elaborate pill box, having multiple compartments for each day, is possible. However, it is more complicated, and more difficult to use. Furthermore, in general a calendar pill box is bulky and difficult for a person to carry when traveling.
Another solution to the problem of assisting an individual to remember prescribed times for taking medication is to provide an electronic reminder. For example, a microprocessor can be programmed to issue reminders using existing telecommunications equipment such as telephones, pagers, and the like. Such systems are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,236 to Conkright, entitled “Medication Dispensing and Timing System Utilizing Patient Communicator with Internal Clock.” A problem with such systems is that they are typically expensive and difficult to program. In addition, electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), and even certain cellular telephones, incorporate calendar and alarm features and can be programmed to generate alarms at different times to inform a person of an appointment, meeting, or other event. Such devices can be programmed to issue reminders that a person should take certain medications. PDAs, such as the PDA described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,752 to Weitzler, entitled “Electronic Reminder,” have even been specifically designed to track medication times.
A problem associated with programmable PDAs is that they are often not user friendly to the elderly. For example, it is typically quite difficult to set multiple alarms. PDAs also usually have small displays, and either small keypad buttons or on-screen buttons that require a stylus. Often the display cannot be easily seen by the elderly, and an elderly individual often cannot easily utilize a small keypads or an on-screen keypad. Furthermore, PDAs are relatively complex devices that require skill to program and operate. An elderly person, and especially a person with a failing memory, usually lacks the ability to remember how to program and operate a traditional PDA.
In addition to keeping track of medications, a person with a condition such as cancer, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer's disease, or AIDS, will typically have other health issues. Many patients are treated by different doctors for different problems. For example, an individual might regularly see both a general practitioner and a cardiologist. Each of these physicians may prescribe medications. It is important for each of them to know what medications are being prescribed by the other. Oncology patients, for example, may take as many as sixteen or more doses of medications on a given day. Some elderly patients may have similar medication requirements. In such cases, it is exceedingly difficult for a patient to convey to a physician essential information concerning his or her treatment by another physician. In an emergency, it is also often difficult for an emergency medical technician, or an attending emergency room physician or nurse to obtain essential information concerning a patient's medical history.
In severe cases of memory loss or reasoning skills, such as often occur with Alzheimer's disease and with dementia due to other causes, a person often cannot remember any useful information. However, such individuals may be otherwise physically fit, and may wander out of a house and become lost. Identification bracelets offer only a partial solution to this problem. If the individual becomes injured, an emergency medical technician, emergency room physician, or other healthcare professional, has no easy way to evaluate the individual's medical history, and no easy way to determine what medications are being taken by the patient. Although implantable electronic devices for recording identification information and medical history are available, they are not practical for all individuals.
Another problem encountered from time to time, especially by elderly individuals living alone, is that they become injured in a fall, or otherwise become incapacitated and unable to summon help. One proposed solution is to have the individual carry an electronic device that can be activated by pushing a button to send out a radio signal to a central monitoring station, either directly or by way of a telephone dialing device. Often, however, the individual will have forgotten to carry the device, or will be unable to use it. When this occurs, the individual may be stranded for a long period of time, sometimes with serious or disastrous consequences.
A need therefore exists for a simple, reliable, and easily programmed electronic assistant that can be used by an elderly individual as well as by an individual with a condition such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, or autism, to ensure that required medications are taken at the proper times, to ensure that the patient's medical history can be accurately and rapidly determined, to ensure that information is accurately shared by multiple physicians treating the same patient, to enable an ambulatory patient to be found if he or she becomes lost, and to summon help automatically when needed in the case where the patient is unable to summon help voluntarily. Embodiments of this invention address one or more of these needs.